Adoptive son says Frederick couple also stole from his trust fund

Couple accused of stealing former adoptive daughter's money

Michael Moore is pictured in his Longmont home on Wednesday. Moore's parents are accused of stealing his trust fund.
(
Greg Lindstrom
)

Gary Moore

LONGMONT -- A 21-year-old Longmont man says a Frederick couple accused of stealing $66,000 from the trust fund of their former adoptive daughter did the same thing to him.

Michael Moore said Gary and Anna Moore stole just less than $22,000 of his trust fund from the same lawsuit settlement that funded his former adoptive sister's account.

"I spent so much time mad and angry over it," he said, noting that once he discovered the theft from his trust fund, he confronted the Moores and they agreed to pay him back $1,000 a month. They did so for seven or eight months and then a check bounced, he said, which sent him and his wife into a debt spiral.

Anna Moore

Longmont police Detective Steve Desmond, who investigated the Moores and arrested them on suspicion of felony theft of more than $20,000 from their daughter, said he is now investigating Michael Moore's case.

The Moores were arrested at their Frederick home Feb. 1 on the theft warrants. According to their arrest warrant affidavits, the couple forged documents and set up fraudulent bank accounts in order to access the trust fund set up for a young woman who they had adopted and then unadopted when she was 12. The fund was set up out of Tulare County, Calif., after the couple successfully sued the county for negligence for failing to reveal information about the girl's personal history that affected her behavior and suitability in the home. Specifics about that suit are redacted from court documents that were made public in this case.

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As part of the suit, the California judge set up a special needs account for the girl meant to offer her a safety net as an adult. She is now under the care of the Pueblo County Department of Social Services, which uncovered the fund and discovered that it had been drained.

According to the Moores' arrest warrant affidavits, the couple got access to the woman's account by forging documents that indicated they were her guardians, but they had nullified her adopted in 2004 and had not cared for her since September 2003, according to investigators. They spent the money on furniture, bills, trips to Blackhawk and Las Vegas, ATVs, and household goods, according to the affidavit.

Among the accounting of the money taken from the woman's trust were monthly checks to Michael Moore for $1,000. He said it appears his adoptive parents used her trust fund money to try to repay his until the money ran out.

"Those were paying me off for what they took from me," Michael Moore said of the checks noted in his adoptive parents' arrest warrants.

He said he knew a trust fund was created for him out of the lawsuit and asked about it when he turned 18, but the Moores told him it would not be paid until he was 21. He continued to investigate and learned from an insurance company that it already had disbursed half of his money. He then tracked it to an account set up in his name in Denver.

"They used my identity, actually my motorcycle ID," he said. "They forged my signature. They did a bunch of stuff."

He found out about the theft from his former adoptive sister's account from media reports on the couple's arrest in that case.

Michael Moore said he was struggling with his options and was considering small claims because police in Denver, where the bank account was set up in his name, had recommended that route.

"They kind of cut me out of their lives when I turned 21," he said, adding that his parents kicked him out of the house when was 18 because he went on a date without telling them.

He said he was glad they adopted him when he was 12 because it got him out of a bad situation with is biological parents, but the theft has been challenging.

"I signed my life over to them thinking I was getting something better," he said.

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